Notable Documents: The Sun-Earth Relationship

June 16, 2010

When I was a kid, I had a serious interest in astronomy. I owned one of those pocket guides to the solar system and read and reread the entries on the Sun and the planets. While it was fun to think about the latter, especially the possibilities of extraterrestrial life (I was also reading Galaxy, If, and other sci-fi magazines), the Sun was mainly the object of a slightly nervous awe. In the age of the Cold War and the hydrogen bomb, the power of the Sun was almost too overwhelming to contemplate. A lot of it was the sheer size and heat – and what sentient creature doesn’t fear a colossal fire?

The Sun, the Earth, and Near-Earth Space, one of Library Journal’s 2009 Notable Government Documents, provides, among other things, hypothetical voyage to, and even into, the Sun. Subtitled “A Guide to the Sun-Earth System”, this handsome, profusely illustrated book  from NASA is accessible and well-written enough for a layperson like me to understand; it’s the facts that are overwhelming. I hate to admit it, but despite my youthful interests, I didn’t remember, or didn’t know, that sunspots are huge magnetic fields generated by the Sun’s incredibly turbulent nuclear furnace, their darkness representing their cooler (7,000 C. versus the 10,000 C. of the solar surface) temperatures. I knew that the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle was prone to cause magnetic disturbances that affected radio electro-magnetic fields on earth, but didn’t realize that the spots themselves were magnetic fields. I also didn’t know that the widespread 1989 electrical blackouts that affected Quebec and parts of the United States were due to the solar flare, coronal mass ejection (CME) and geomagnetic storm of March 13 of that year.

The Sun, the Earth, and Near-Earth Space is packed with historical and scientific information about the Sun and its relationship with our planet – which means with all of us – that I found totally engrossing. The verdict: an excellent read for a non-scientist interested in astronomical phenomena, a fine textbook for a college-level course, and a reminder of how much we depend on this much-worshipped but little-understood source of all energy and life.

To read portions of The Sun, the Earth, and Near-Earth Space, go here. You can get a copy (a scan doesn’t do this book justice) in paperback or hardback. To find it in a library, try this.

39 Comments | NASA | Permalink
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Critical Thinking and Missile Crises

June 11, 2010

Government Book Talk got quite a bit of traffic for last Friday’s review of  Interrogation: World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq, so I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss another book just in from the National Defense Intelligence College. Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis is a study of the practice of critical thinking – which can be defined as simultaneously thinking and thinking about thinking as a means of an analyst “coming to a solution and improving the way her or she reasons.” Although the application of this reasoning technique to intelligence analysis is the focus of the book, the discussion of what critical thinking is, its advantages over either inductive or deductive reasoning, and its value in the analysis of a wide variety of problems and situations makes it a useful tool for academics, business people, or anyone else needing to analyze a particular scenario or set of evidence.

Because I’m not a heavily abstract thinker, I found the author’s case study very useful in getting a better handle on how the absence of critical thinking can result in a major intelligence failure. Prior to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, American intelligence analysts had received so much false or exaggerated information on Soviet military activities – including reports of Mongolian and Chinese troops –  that they seemed to believe that any such reports had to be untrue. Disinformation on the part of the Soviets added to the analysts’ disinclination to think critically about the intelligence they were receiving, so the discovery of offensive Soviet missiles was a total surprise to them.  The book also draws analogies to the failure of intelligence during the lead up to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and in the 2002 failure to detect the absence of weapons of mass destruction prior to the second U.S. war with Iraq.

The verdict: an excellent textbook for the teaching of critical thinking (there’s a syllabus in the Appendix) and a very interesting take on a crucial episode in Cold War history. You can read it here and buy it here. To find it in a library, go here.

2 Comments | Defense Intelligence Agency | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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Just for Fun: The Nuttall Tick Catalogue

June 8, 2010

Okay, all of us here at Government Book Talk love our Government books, but we also know that some of them are…unusual. Sometimes a particular title becomes a sort of shorthand for the whole category of strangely and obscurely titled Federal documents. At one time, the book that summed up this exotic aspect of Government publications for my colleagues and me was the Nuttall Tick Catalogue – or to cite its more euphonious full title, George Henry Falkiner Nuttall and the Nuttall Tick Catalogue. In fact, just a few weeks ago I received an email from a former colleague (from Greece!) congratulating me on this blog and asking if I planned to do a post about the Tick Catalogue.

It’s the perfect oddity: as the Preface states, “”This publication brings up to date, in a slightly revised form, Nuttall’s ‘Catalogue of Ticks,’ a three-volume handwritten journal, never before published.” Given that Dr. Nuttall (pictured above) died in 1937 and that the Catalogue was not published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) until 1984, it doesn’t seem as if the world was in a rush to see it in print.

A closer look does tend to bring things into focus. Dr. Nuttall himself had quite a distinguished career as a biologist, as well as a brief stint as a special constable during the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake. He was the founder of the journal Parasitology, and indeed of the field of parasitology, a leading researcher into the transmission of diseases by parasites, and the discoverer of the bactericidal properties of human blood. He concluded his career as Quick Professor of Biology at Cambridge University.

The editor of the Catalogue, J.E. Keirans, apparently is still active as a researcher. His specialties include ticks (of course) and the detective stories of John Dickson Carr (particular favorites of mine as well – I think The Three Coffins was his best).

I really can’t comment on the Tick Catalogue’s value as a scientific document but, given Nuttall’s very distinguished career, I’m convinced that USDA had good reason to make some of his work more widely available, albeit it was not the stuff of best sellers. Of course, that’s one of the noblest functions of Government publications – to make valuable information available regardless of how narrow a niche that knowledge may occupy. We also owe thanks to J.E. Keirans, who labored so diligently to bring the Catalogue to light.

I couldn’t find the text of George Henry Falkiner Nuttall and the Nuttall Tick Catalogue online, but a number of libraries do have it.

For more wildly and wonderfully titled Government publications, go here!

2 Comments | U.S. Department of Agriculture | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
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Government Gets Healthy

June 4, 2010

 

Government Book Talk presents its first guest blogger!

My name is Kelly Seifert. I’ve been with GPO for nine years, working on initiatives for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). You may know me from the recent “GPO Takes to the Streets” promotional videos: http://www.fdlp.gov/outreach/promotionalresources/381-taketostreet. Most of my work centers on promoting the FDLP. I’m fascinated by the wide range of unique and intriguing Government documents out there and I’m always in search of interesting titles.

As I’ve heard more and more about the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity, I started to wonder what kinds of information resources were available from the Government on health and nutrition. It turns out there are plenty!

Thinking about childhood obesity, one document particularly stuck out. In 1995, the National Cancer Institute put out an educational game called, “Slam Your Way to Good Health by Eating Five Fruits and Vegetables a Day!” The game came with pop-out disks depicting healthy, tasty foods. Players took turns “slamming” or throwing down the disks and collecting the ones that landed face-up. What a neat way to teach kids about nutrition!

While currently out of print, you can easily access this game by visiting your local Federal depository library. Locate a library in your area here.

Looking at the Slam game made me curious to see what else was available from the Government on healthy living. What I found was pretty cool. There are resources available for all ages. Here are a few… 1) Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health, 2) Pocket Guide to Staying Healthy at 50+, 3) The Healthy Woman: A Complete Guide for All Ages, 4) Be Active Your Way: A Guide for Adults, and 5) MyPyramid: Steps To A Healthier You (Poster)…and the list goes on and on!

Learn more about “Let’s Move” at http://letsmove.gov/.

14 Comments | National Cancer Institute | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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Prisoner Interrogation in Three Wars

June 3, 2010

Interrogation: World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq is an absolutely fascinating read. This book from the National Defense Intelligence College takes both an historical and policy-oriented view of prisoner of war interrogations in three wars. The World War II section examines the Army’s use of Japanese Americans – Nisei – as interrogators in the Pacific, along with incisive discussions of why Japanese soldiers seldom were taken prisoners, why a relatively high percentage of such POWs cooperated with their interrogators, and why they furnished such a significant amount of intelligence to their captors (the Japanese military hierarchy assumed that their men would not become prisoners and so did not indoctrinate them about the importance of not giving up information if they were.) This part of the book also analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Army and Navy Japanese language training  provided during the war.

The Vietnam section focuses on profiles of the most able interrogators in World War II (the wonderfully named R.W. G. “Tin Eye” Stephens for the British and Hans Scharff for the Germans) and a number of successful American officers during the Vietnam conflict. Throughout the book, the authors make the point that linguistic ability, a deep understanding of the captives’ culture and worldview, and a perception that torture or other violent methods were useless in soliciting information of value are the hallmarks of a successful interrogator of prisoners. This part of the book also describes these individuals’ occasional conflicts with the military bureaucracy, such as Sedgwick Tourison’s experience in reporting more information about the Tonkin Gulf incident than his superiors wanted to hear.

The final section, on Iraq, focuses on policy issues – specifically, whether Army doctrine should permit Special Operations personnel to interrogate prisoners. Again, real-world examples from personal experience provide a study that is both gripping and insightful.

Interrogation: World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq is a thoughtful and provocative analysis of what any army confronts in war – the need to gather intelligence from prisoners, the most effective way to do that, and the ineffectiveness of “harsh methods” in delivering useful information.

You can read the book here or get a copy from GPO here.  To find it in a library, search here.

1 Comment | Defense Intelligence Agency, National Defense Intelligence College | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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The Constitution: Pocket and Otherwise

May 28, 2010

Last week a Capitol Hill paper did a piece on the popularity of the United States Constitution as a publication and one of the news services picked it up. Although those of us who work at the Government Printing Office think of the “Pocket Constitution” authorized by Congress as the classic printed version, many other organizations also print and distribute copies, as the article points out. At least one other Federal Government agency does its own edition of the Pocket Constitution: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as part of its effort to encourage immigrants to become citizens. Like the congressional edition, this little booklet throws in the Declaration of Independence as well.

All of this made me curious about how many editions of the Constitution currently appear in Federal documents of various sorts. It turns out there are quite a few.

Note: This is a totally unscientific and partial survey based on what I found in our online bookstore.

For those who can’t get enough of the Constitution and its interpretation, there’s the Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, published every 10 years or so and weighing in at an imposing 9 pounds, six ounces, not counting the supplements issued to keep it up to date.  If you can’t wait to start reading, you can find it here.

For those of us who like to contemplate history’s “might have beens,” you can’t do better than The Constitution of the United States of America as Amended; Unratified Amendments; Analytical Index, which, in addition to the text of the Constitution, details about the ratification of each amendment to the Constitution, and an exhaustive index, discusses six other amendments that were submitted to the states for ratification but not adopted. You can read them here and find out which unratified amendment was the only one actually signed by the President.

Naturally, the Constitution is also included in the procedural manuals of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And don’t forget Interpreting Old Ironsides: An Illustrated Guide to the USS Constitution – oh, wait, that’s a different kind of vessel of democracy.

I think I’ve made my point, and I haven’t even touched on everything in our online bookstore, let alone what you could find through the vast resources of the Federal Depository Library Program. Maybe someone can put a list together before the Fourth of July…

2 Comments | Congress, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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Notable Documents 2009: Walter Reed

May 27, 2010

School kids used to learn that, in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, Walter Reed helped to discover that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes. Many of us have heard of “Walter Reed Hospital” as a place where for many years Presidents and wounded warriors alike have received medical care. What I didn’t realize is that Major Reed died only a year after he left Cuba. His friend Major William C. Borden, head of the Army General Hospital, was so devastated by Reed’s death that he worked for years to raise funds for a new hospital to be named after his friend. Walter Reed General Hospital opened in May 1909 and, as Walter Reed Army Medical Center, celebrated its centennial last year.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center Centennial: A Pictorial History, 1909–2009, one of Library Journal’s 2009 Notable Government Documents, provides both text and photos of this remarkable institution. Of course, the emphasis is on the treatment of armed forces personnel, not Presidents; the latter appear as visitors, not patients, as do Bill Cosby, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Bob Hope (twice) and others. The real focus is on regular GI’s being cared for and undergoing rehabilitation. I was interested to learn that occupational therapy was a part of Walter Reed’s activities from its earliest days. Some of the photos are grim, depicting the struggles of seriously wounded GIs to regain use of their limbs or learn to use prosthetic ones. There are also numerous shots of construction as Walter Reed expanded over the years.

The verdict: A part of military history that all of us should remember, far from the parades and worth thinking about as we approach the Memorial Day weekend.

You can find Walter Reed Army Medical Center Centennial: A Pictorial History, 1909–2009 here, or locate it in a library here.

1 Comment | U.S. Army, Walter Reed Army Medical Center | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
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Notable Documents 2009: Tracking Hurricanes

May 21, 2010

I believe this blog is evidence that Government books can provide both information and entertainment to readers, despite their stereotyped image as massive tomes packed with charts and statistics that only someone wearing a green eyeshade could love. Sometimes, though, charts also have their charms. Consider one of Library Journal’s 2009 Notable Government Documents: Tropical Cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean, 1851-2006. Known to hurricane aficionados as “The Track Book”, this latest edition of a long-running series is mainly made up of year-by-year charts of the tracks of all North Atlantic tropic storms and hurricanes – 1,370, to be exact. Thanks to some diligent research by the staff of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, this edition includes charts from 1851 to 1870 and revised charts from 1871-1910. I’m intrigued by the kind of research that had to be done to come up with tracks for the 19th century storms – no satellite photographs then. Apparently ship records are a major source.

Well, OK, but so what? For one thing, of those 1,370 storms, 521, or 38 percent, have crossed or passed immediately adjacent to the U.S. coastline from Texas to Maine. Having recently blogged about the National Guard in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the colorful spaghetti-like strands that mark the tracks of 2005’s storms make these charts a lot more meaningful. It’s also interesting to see the variations from year to year – 2005 is a real tangle, while for a handful of years the charts are almost blank.

Tropical Cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean, 1851-2006 isn’t exactly “a good read” but it does have a fascination all its own. For hurricane watchers, for example, it’s a vital reference source. You can look at it here. To find a library that has it, go here. To read more about the lessons Hurricane Katrina taught all of us, go here. Happy hurricane hunting!

4 Comments | Gulf Coast, NOAA | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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Notable Documents 2009: Civics Flash Cards

May 18, 2010

Each year, Library Journal, “the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field,” selects what it considers to be the most notable government documents, including those produced by the Federal Government.  For 2009, 15 Federal Government publications got the nod, and I plan to discuss them here over the next few weeks.

According to Library Journal, “This year’s list of Notable Government Documents includes titles on history, government policy, mental and physical health, biology, global warming, and environmental protection, among other topics.” One of the more unusual items is a new edition of Civics Flash Cards for the Naturalization Test, a publication from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This set of 100 questions and answers is used by USCIS officers to administer orally; an applicant will be asked 10 of these.

The cards cover the nature and structure of the Constitution, the Federal Government and some basic American history. The questions range from “What is the name of the President of the United States now?” (pretty easy) to “How many amendments does the Constitution have?” (uh-oh). Well, that’s why these cards exist: so someone seeking citizenship can, by practicing, be prepared to take and pass the naturalization test. USCIS deserves credit for putting together such an informative and useful publication. I think it would also make a great study guide for use in schools.

You can purchase the Civics Flash Cards for the Naturalization Test here or view them online here. There’s also a do-it-yourself version here.

Note: Many of the questions have more than one correct answer, luckily for me.

8 Comments | U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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Navigating by the Moon, Planets, and Stars

May 14, 2010

The Nautical Almanac is one of the longest-running publications in the Federal Government, dating back to 1852. It’s also one of the most distinctive-looking books I’ve ever seen.  The covers are orange and made of a stiff board-like material, and the cover graphics certainly look like they date back to 1852. Between those covers lie the complex mathematical tables that, “along with the chronometer, the sextant, a steady hand and a keen eye, are the resources needed to navigate by the stars.” Honestly, the contents mean less than nothing to a non-math person, but what images they conjure up for a history person! Old salts striding across a ship’s deck, sextant in hand, getting ready to round the Horn – well, you get the idea.

The Almanac is a unique example of a Government publication produced by two countries – the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) and Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office (HNMAO). Also unique is that the U.S. part of the Almanac is in the public domain, but the British part is under Crown Copyright.

The Nautical Almanac is one of a number of almanacs published by the U.S. Naval Observatory: the Astronomical Almanac, the Air Almanac, and Astronomical Phenomena. Together, they provide a corpus of navigational knowledge that spans the centuries but is still the ultimate backup to the GPS technology of today.

I wonder if they’ll ever change those orange covers?

13 Comments | Naval Observatory, U.S. Navy | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
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“Now, when I was in Baghdad” – A Short Guide to Iraq

May 11, 2010

One of my first posts on this blog concerned a World War II booklet illustrated by Dr. Seuss. It was one of a cache of such booklets that had belonged to one of my uncles during his wartime service as a Navy pilot. Although not collector’s items, these little guides to China, India, Burma, West Africa, and even New Caledonia, fascinated me as a kid. As an adult, both before and after my discovery that the Dr. Seuss booklet was a collector’s item, I didn’t give them much thought.

Several years ago, though, they were brought to mind by a call from the person who was then in charge of GPO’s public relations office. Every so often we get calls about long out of print Government publications, and this was one of them. A reporter was asking about A Short Guide to Iraq and did I have any information about it? “Well, yes. Oddly enough, I own a copy.” I explained the background and said I’d rummage around at home and find it.

Within a few hours, I was in her office doing a telephone interview with a wire service reporter with a British accent. She seemed fascinated by how I had come to own a copy of the booklet she was seeking. As far as I know, the story never went anywhere, but I’m still amazed at how much excitement these old documents can stir up.

As for A Short Guide to Iraq, what seems to engage people is that American troops were sent to Iraq during the Second World War and that so much of the advice it provides seems relevant even today. A university press has reprinted a facsimile under the title “Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq during World War II” (the cover looks different but it’s basically the same book). It’s a quick read and very well done for its purpose, which was to give a quick overview of Iraq and its people for the average GI or sailor. It’s similar in intent, although less elaborate in execution, to the Afghanistan and Pakistan Smart Books I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. Click here to read this neat little booklet.

11 Comments | U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Uncategorized, World War II | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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“It was very surreal”: Katrina and the National Guard

May 7, 2010

The Gulf Coast is in the news again these days, so it seemed appropriate to write about a new account of the last time disaster struck there. In Katrina’s Wake: The National Guard on the Gulf Coast, 2005 is a concise account of the Guard’s massive relief efforts. Even after five years, the numbers are hard to assimilate: more than $125,000,000,000 in property destroyed, almost 2,000 killed in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and 80 percent of one of America’s great cities flooded. The first-person accounts of Guard personnel and the photos of flooding and rooftop evacuations by helicopter vividly conjure up those grim days.

In Katrina’s Wake was written by the National Guard Bureau’s Historical Services Division, which helps to set some of the events of that time in context. For example, I remember reading about what seemed to be a legalistic discussion as to whether the various state National Guard contingents sent to the Gulf ought to be federalized. The authors point out that keeping the various Guard units under the control of the state governors under the auspices of Title 32 allows the Guard to exercise police powers in an emergency, while the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits the military and federalized National Guard troops from doing so. This key distinction was crucial when the New Orleans police force collapsed under the stress of disaster.

The book also highlights small moments: the flooding of the Louisiana Guard’s historic Jackson Barracks; the pathetic story of Snowball the dog and its impact on changing the “no pets” policy of the red Cross and other relief agencies; and the Ohio Guard contingent greeted by a local citizen who started unloading cans of juice and snacks from his truck to give to the Guardsmen. One Guardsman’s response: “We’re here to help you – not the other way around.”

In Katrina’s Wake is a brief but effective account of something that went right during the devastation of the Gulf Coast, when so much else went tragically wrong.

3 Comments | National Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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